A few weeks ago, I set off to attend the Alimentaria food show in Barcelona, long delayed because of COVID-19. This would only be my second trip to Spain since 2019. In the past, we were privileged to travel to Spain two or maybe three times a year, visiting with suppliers and discovering amazing new foods to share with you. Now we were excited to travel again!
When Ferdinand and Isabella in the monastery of Guadalupe received Christopher Columbus at the completion of his second voyage to America, they were astonished when he presented them with peppers from the New World. The flavor of the peppers took their breath away, but that did not stop the monks from cultivating them and soon the peppers spread throughout Extremadura. But it was not until the...
Extremadura is one of our very favorite regions of Spain -- it reminds us a little of the Wild West of Texas. The countryside is open and expansive: dry plains, mountains, marshes, meadows and fields. Tourists have not discovered the region so you can go for days just enjoying the landscape and the warm and hospitable people.
The most important area is called the dehesa which is...
This is an itinerary I designed for a couple who wanted to get immersed in the heart of Spain while avoiding the usual tourist destinations. This was a little over two weeks, which I think is the minimum to do Spain justice. Even with that, we only concentrated on perhaps one third of the country, always bear in mind that there are 17 autonomous regions with their own distinct styles and sometimes...
